Pulau Kukup cannot be gazetted as a national park as long as it remains a sultanate land, lawyer N Surendran has said.

The Lawyers for Liberty advisor said that only state-owned lands could be gazetted as such, as stipulated in the National Park (Johor) Corporation Enactment 1989 (1989 Enactment).

As such, he said the only way to re-gazette the Johor island as a national park is for the Johor government to acquire ownership of the land once more.

"This is by virtue of Section 3(1) of the 1989 Enactment which states that: 'the State Authority may reserve any State land for the purpose of a National Park'.

"As such Pulau Kukup cannot be gazetted as a national park because the Johor State government has also decided that it be held as 'sultanate land' under the 1934 Enactment (Sultanate Lands Enactment 1934).

"Section 2(1) of the 1934 Enactment provides that land held as sultanate land is 'not as part of the property of the State'," he said in a statement today.

His statement came a day after Johor ruler Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar said that the island, known for its pristine wetlands, will be preserved as a national park despite it being classified as sultanate land.

He said the Johor government had agreed to gazette the whole of Pulau Kukup under Schedule II of the 1934 Enactment to ensure the land's sovereignty, while it would also be gazetted as a national park under the 1989 Enactment.

This would make the preservation of the island the responsibility of the Johor National Parks Corporation, the ruler noted.

Pulau Kukup is one of five sites in Malaysia recognised by the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance.

It is home to many endangered species such as the flying fox, smooth otter, bearded pig, and long-tailed macaque.